The present invention relates to apparatus for the sealing of packaging containers, and more particularly to apparatus for automatically sealing the foldable flaps of low profile cartons of the general type which are used to package books and the like.
In the packaging industry, corrugated and fiberboard cartons have been used for many years and various machines have been developed which are capable of sealing such cartons either by glueing the flaps, taping the flaps or by stapling or otherwise providing mechanical fasteners to maintain the flaps in a closed position. Many of these machines are designed to accept cartons of random width and height by providing various types of sensing means to control the transverse movement of carton centering side arms and the vertical movement of the top sealing means.
The present invention is directed to the type of carton sealing machine which applies a strip of adhesive tape across the flaps of the carton. Examples of such machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,527, 4,079,577 and 4,173,105, all of which are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Although these machines are capable of handling a wide range of different carton sizes, they can not handle cartons which have a very low profile or height dimension. An example of low profile cartons are the cartons which are used to package books. Such cartons, which are known in the industry as five panel cartons, generally have a main panel, upstanding side panels of a short dimension hinged to each of the edges of the main panel, and flaps hinged to the opposed edges of each of the side panels. Due to the small dimension of the side panels it has not been heretofore possible to use general purpose sealing machines to seal such types of low profile cartons.